


Come Back To Me

by MarzipanOtter



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Obsessed Hego Damask
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:34:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21972922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarzipanOtter/pseuds/MarzipanOtter
Summary: Plagueis' apprentice returns after an extended period away, prompting some troubling questions for the old muun.
Relationships: Hego Damask | Darth Plagueis/Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Come Back To Me

The wine was running on empty, Hego Damask noticed with a grimace. This could only mean two things. Firstly, that he was most likely more intoxicated than he felt, and secondly that he would have to go to the trouble of importing some more. He sighed, this would, no doubt, prove to be a nuisance. The wine had been most expensive, after all, a rare Corellian vintage that was nigh on impossible to source, unless you had particular contacts. Even then, it was far from guaranteed. 

However, all the musings in the world couldn't distract him from the true nuisance in his life, that which had driven him to deplete his beloved wine cellars in the first place: Sheev Palpatine. 

He had been far too long without his apprentice, so long in fact, that not even his experiments could quite fill the void left by that distinctive presence. All things considered, it was only natural that he should react quite as he did to 11-4D’s announcement that Lord Sidious’ shuttle was approaching. He'd known this long before the droid, of course, he would have known that force signature anywhere, could sense it at great distances. It was quite reasonable that his trio of hearts should race, quite reasonable that he should have had to fight back the desire to leap to his feet and run to the landing bay. Or at least that was what he told himself.    
  


Palpatine had been on his home planet for a month, a whole month, where he'd spent his time stubbornly ignoring his Master's comms, under the pretense of political obligations. It was impertinence. It was an insult. He should have been furious. He could have commanded that he return, of course, he could have chartered a course for Naboo at any time, torn the doors off their hinges and  _ dragged _ the little fool back to Coruscant, off to Muunilinst, chained him up in the deepest darkest tunnel of Aborah…

He should have. He'd have been well within his rights as Sith Master to do so. 

But he hadn't. He wasn't certain why. 

That was not to say he would not scold his apprentice. No, Sidious would know of his displeasure, and he would know it well. 

However, when his apprentice finally sauntered into his quarters, head held high, unrepentant and proud as he pleased, he still couldn't find it in himself to unleash his rage in forks of lightning. Not this time. This particular instance of  _ insubordination  _ called for a softer, more subtle approach. 

“It is somewhat baffling, Lord Sidious, that you repeatedly profess so very passionately your devotion to the study of the Dark Side, and yet you see fit to _abscond_ , at length, without my permission.”

“I was not gone so long, Master. As I said, I would return soon, and I did.” Palpatine replied, smoothly. The calmness of his tone did little to alleviate the irritation boiling beneath the surface. How could he be so flippant about this? His place was here, with his master, unless his master bade otherwise. 

“A standard month is not  _ soon _ , Apprentice,” he found himself scolding, a memory floating back of a similar rebuke from Palpatine, many years previous now.  _ A standard week is not soon.  _ He supposed it wasn't soon, in hindsight, not when you wanted -  _ needed _ \- someone. But still. A  _ month. _

_ “ _ I was busy.” A little more sullen now. There was clearly still a touch of that petulant child in his apprentice, if one knew where to look, despite the grey creeping into his hair. 

“Busy? What, pray tell me, was so important that you ignore my comms?” There was no reply. A lie then. He'd thought as much. He continued,  _ “ _ Might I remind you that your place is with me, when I desire it so, rather than at your whim, as you quite clearly believe it to be…” 

“Might I remind you why I left?” Palpatine replied.

“Sidious, please.” He held up a hand, as if to stop the forthcoming tirade in its tracks. He was in no mood for Sidious’ nagging. Sometimes it felt as though they were going around in circles. “I have very little interest in your petty grievances. Everything I do, apprentice, is for your sake, and for the sake of the Grand Plan.”

“For  _ my _ sake?”

“Yes, for your sake. If I did not hold you in such high regard,  _ Palpatine _ , I would have snapped your neck many moons ago and left you to rot.” he snapped. It had been a while since he'd said something so blatantly harsh to his apprentice, longer still since Sidious had given him reason to speak to him in such a manner. 

A sharp intake of breath told him that this had struck a nerve. It had once been so very easy to rile his apprentice, his temper had been as fiery as his hair once, but no longer. The King of Beasts was carefully hidden behind the cordial, collected facade of the politician.

  
Sidious was close now, much too close, close enough for Hego to see the loose threads on his heavily embroidered robes. How he  _ hated  _ the elaborate dress of the Naboo. Pleasant as it was to see his apprentice clothed in the finery he  _ deserved _ , there was something so terribly inconvenient about all those accursed layers, the fussing and nagging about the rich fabrics should he be too enthusiastic with their removal.

“Then why didn’t you?” 

There it was. The question that he could not answer, not yet. Not until the realisation of the Grand Plan. He was certain Sidious knew, that brilliant mind constantly analysing every word that was said to him, every gesture, every ebb and change in the Force. Sidious must know, he was certain, Sidious knew that his master loved him, and all that he was, even as he tormented him. 

There could be no kiss, not anymore, not with his transpirator, but what came next was the closest they still had to such a thing, a brush of lips where the alloy mask affixed to skin, the sensation resembling not so much tenderness as poking at a wound. All the same, he would take it, for now, sliding a spindly arm about the human’s waist to pull him closer. Possessive, perhaps, yes, but that was his way, would always be his way, as it was the way of all the Sith. Sidious was his, and only his. 

  
"You've come back to me then, my wayward apprentice?" He'd intended the question to sound mocking - Sidious never could stay away for too long - but it didn't. It sounded almost like a plea: _Don't leave again. Come back to me. Be mine forever._ It would almost be laughable, he thought, if it wasn't such a tragedy, how his little human entranced him, even after all these years.    
  
"As always." The reply, when it came, still tinged with the strange lilting accent of Naboo, as it always was after extended periods on his home planet, sent a thrill through him like no other.    
  
It was strange, how such a simple phrase could affect him so deeply. He'd considered himself a rational being, a muun of science, and would do so still, if it wasn't for how, with every questioning tilt of that copper-crowned head, or flash of golden rage in those cold blue eyes, Sidious drew him ever closer to the edge of his reason. 

  
There was grave danger in this, he knew that, his private worship of this creature was - even amongst sith - abomination, but he cared not. Sidious was his greatest creation, his triumph, his nemesis, his beloved and his whore, the only one worthy of sharing his dark throne, and yet his unease at the situation only grew, growing greater still as he felt a slender hand ghosting down his torso, cupping him through his robes. 

“No.” He hissed, thrusting his apprentice away harshly. He would not allow his apprentice to distract him so tonight. Not when his behaviour had been so erratic. 

Sidious simply gazed at him for a moment, confusion - irritation? - clear in those sleepy blue eyes, then he knelt, bowing his head in genuflection. 

“Forgive me master, I assumed…”

“You assumed much.” He reached out, feeling Palpatine tense in anticipation of pain, of his master’s lightning, of being dragged by his hair, of some form of punishment as yet undiscovered. How his apprentice had learned, he thought. But his mood for punishment was long gone, instead, he simply allowed his fingers to trail gently through that hair, snagging lightly on the luxuriously kept curls. “You've had a long journey. Go to bed, apprentice. Rest. We shall discuss this tomorrow, when you are more yourself.”

He drew away, allowing Sidious to stand, and make for the door, the silk of his cloak whispering across the floor. He wondered if he should have spoken to him longer, drawn out an apology, made him see the seriousness of his actions. He didn't want him to leave, not now, no after these last weeks apart. He wanted him to stay, to sit up until dawn, drinking wine and discussing the nuances of the Force and of galactic politics, of opera, such as they used to. He wanted. 

  
“Sidious?” He called out. His apprentice paused in the doorway, glancing back over his shoulder at the old muun. There was a time when Plagueis would have punished him for such casual disrespect, demanded that he  _ look at him  _ when spoken to, that he  _ kneel.  _ But he just didn't have the appetite for such things now. Instead, he simply heard himself ask, chiding, longing. "You’ll stay, then? Things shall be as they were?"

The silence stretched between them, oppressive, and to his ever active imagination, thick enough to cut with a vibroblade. 

  
"Not as they were, master." There was an unnerving sort of light in his apprentice’s eyes tonight, perhaps even a challenge. _Follow_ , they urged him. _Follow me._ “Better.”

  
And with that, he was gone, the sound of his boot-heels clicking on the marble floors slowly growing more distant, towards the guest suite. The urge to do just as his apprentice silently commanded, to follow, damn the consequences, was almost overwhelming.    
  


In his mind’s eye, he could see things as they could be, if he went to Sidious now, if he took him in his arms as he had before, peeled back those ostentatious layers of Naboo velvets and silks until there was nothing but soft freckled skin and softer, impossibly softer red hair. He could picture how his apprentice would sigh and tremble in his arms as he sank between his thighs...

But he would not go to Palpatine tonight. No matter what temptations the little demon put in his path, he would not go. 

No good could come from wanting his apprentice thus. No good had. Not long ago, he’d been longing for his apprentice to return to him, and now, he was almost tempted to send him away again, until he cleared his head. Until he had the answers to those questions that plagued him, the questions no sith master even wanted to consider: who truly held the power here? Was he even truly still the master at all? 

  
_ You fool.  _ He thought.  _ You stupid old fool.  _


End file.
